Selling to Aviation & Aerospace
Global commercial MRO spend ~$94B/year (2024), projected $124B by 2030. North America ~$30B. MRO consumables (chemistry, lubricants, sealants, abrasives, hardware) ~$3-5B annually. Defense aviation MRO adds ~$25B in DoD spend.
AVL qualification 6-18 months. Once qualified: 30-90 days for AOG/consumable replenishment; 90-180 days for new chemistry adoption with QA validation; 12-24 months for OEM-spec change-outs requiring engineering disposition.
$5K-$50K initial qualified-sample to first PO; $50K-$1M+ annual once on AVL. National MRO contracts (e.g., Delta TechOps consumables): $1M-$10M annual. DoD BPAs: $500K-$50M ceiling.
Sub-segments inside Aviation & Aerospace
Commercial Airline In-House MRO
Large carrier maintenance bases — Delta TechOps (Atlanta), American Airlines Tulsa, United Tech Ops (San Francisco/Houston). 10,000+ A&P mechanics across line + heavy stations.
The flagship sub-segment. Heavy maintenance hangars (C-checks, D-checks) plus line maintenance at every hub. Run as profit centers — Delta TechOps sells third-party MRO to other airlines. Procurement is centralized but consumables decisions live with the floor.
Independent Part 145 Repair Stations
AAR (Indianapolis, Miami, Oklahoma City), ST Engineering (Mobile, Pensacola), HAECO Americas (Greensboro, Lake City), Lufthansa Technik (Tulsa, Puerto Rico), MTU Maintenance. Single facility 200-2,000 mechanics; multi-site networks 5,000+.
Independents compete on turn-time and price. Heavy maintenance, engine overhaul, component repair. AS9100 + Part 145 + customer-specific approvals (Boeing, Airbus, GE, Pratt). Procurement highly structured AVL — getting on it takes 6-18 months.
Fixed-Base Operators (FBOs) & Corporate Aviation
Signature Aviation, Atlantic Aviation, Million Air, Jet Aviation. 200+ FBO locations nationally. Each FBO: 10-50 line service techs, sometimes a small Part 145 shop. Corporate flight departments — Fortune 500 hangars.
FBO = jet hospitality + fueling + light maintenance. Line service is the front door. FBO chemistry is closer to property management than heavy MRO — wash bays, hangar floors, lav service, GSE maintenance. Decisions are local to the GM at most chains.
Military Aviation & DoD Contractors
DoD depots (Tinker AFB, Hill AFB, Robins AFB, NAS Jacksonville, Cherry Point), prime contractors (Lockheed, Boeing Defense, Northrop, L3Harris), maintenance contracts (PWC, Vertex, M1 Support). Each depot 5,000-15,000 personnel.
Federal acquisition rules. GSA, DLA, set-aside contracts, BPAs. Long sales cycles (12-36 months). Higher-than-commercial requirements — MIL-SPEC, Buy American, ITAR, country-of-origin documentation. Margin lower but volume + stickiness very high.
Helicopter Operators
Bristow Group, PHI Aviation, ERA Helicopters, Air Methods (EMS), Rocky Mountain Helicopters. Utility, EMS, offshore oil & gas, firefighting. Fleets 30-300 airframes per operator.
Different rhythm than fixed-wing. Higher cycle counts, harsher environments (offshore salt, hot/dust), specialty greases and corrosion control. EMS operators run 24/7. Offshore operators face deepwater logistics — parts must ship same-day to a heliport.
Aerospace OEM & Component Manufacturing
Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer airframe factories. Tier-1 component manufacturers (Spirit AeroSystems, Collins Aerospace, GKN, Honeywell Aerospace, Safran). Tier-2 specialty machine shops in aerospace clusters (Wichita, Seattle, Toulouse, Mobile).
Manufacturing-side spend pattern (cutting fluids, abrasives, fasteners, threadlockers) under aerospace traceability rules. AS9100D mandatory. Counterfeit parts prevention drives source-of-supply scrutiny. Separate sales motion from in-service MRO.
Key personas you'll meet
5 researched personas for Aviation & Aerospace. Each one carries its own vocabulary, pain-point ranking, and discovery question bank — used to make every brief persona-specific.